Orrin choked as the collar-turned-bands of metal cut off his breath. He looked around the room for anything or anyone to help but the doorway he’d run through in his haste to get away led to an empty classroom. Other than a few loose chairs pushed against the far wall, the room was empty.
Wren stalked up to him, her hand raised in the air. Orrin could feel her mana twisting through the metal bands. He raised his fingers up to his neck and found blood from where he’d already been cut. He had seconds to react. Taking her down last time had been easy, so if he just—
Wren twisted her fingers and the collar yanked him to the tips of his toes.
“Wait,” he gasped. “I can’t breathe.”
“You won’t either until you tell me what you did and how you did it. You tore through my defenses like paper. I find you invisible in my brother’s room with him dying at your feet. He makes up a story that you saved him and work for him but too many things don’t add up. Put your hands behind your back, now.”
Orrin’s lungs began to burn as he tried to suck in more air. He hovered on the edge of consciousness as Wren pulled his hands back. He couldn’t fight back in any way, showing once again how little power he had even with all his levels. Something circled his wrists and he heard a distinct click before the bands around his neck loosened. He fell to the floor in a heap and gulped in the air.
“Now,” Wren’s voice sounded throughout the room with a quiet but fierce tone. “Let’s chat.”
The door slammed shut on its own accord and one of the chairs screeched as it pulled its way to them. Wren sat down, with Orrin at her feet.
“Tell me who you are.”
----------------------------------------
“… and then I brought him to Alma,” Orrin finished his tale. He didn’t hold back, telling Wren his real name, his capture and subsequent deal with Anabella, the assassination attempt, and his own mission that Graem refused to let him escape from. “I swear to you, I never tried to poison Graem. In fact, I’ve cured his hangovers and detoxed his body of drugs so many times, you could call me his doctor.”
Wren’s eyes were focused on Orrin and he knew without a doubt she was searching him for any use of magic. Orrin wasn’t worried about his health depleting, even with the cuts on his neck. Wren’s magic reattached the collar into one piece, making him question if she could deactivate it completely. He leaned into the captured and helpless act, hoping against hope that the sister would free him where the brother wouldn’t.
“Why you? You present like a [Wind Mage] but you used spells I’ve never heard of on me. Why would Lady Sanerris send you to entice these targets? They aren’t even the ones making the decisions. You could probably incapacitate any one of them separately but there are easier ways and places to pull a kidnapping.”
Orrin had thought the same thing himself multiple times. Rhys’s mother was known to be as smart as Anabella and Rhys didn’t hold that kind of sway over his mother, even if they’d become best friends instead of the clusterfuck of maybe-enemy/maybe-savior relationship they had. From what he knew, Maeve’s family would vote for Anabella as long as she was safe. Finley was even more of an outlier. “She promised not to hurt their parents, but maybe just the threat of me would be enough. Imagine Rhys is your kid and Anabella comes up to you and points out how close I got to him as a friend. A veiled threat might work well enough for whatever she has planned.”
Wren rolled her eyes. “If Lady Sanerris makes a veiled threat to you, you’re already dead.”
They sat there in silence.
“You have to teach class in a bit. Are you going to kill me or let me go?” Orrin tried to sound sure of the answer.
“It would be easier.”
“What would be easier?” Orrin felt sweat roll down the back of his neck… or maybe it was blood.
“My job is to protect the students here,” Wren spoke while standing and pacing in front of him. “You might not realize it but you are a danger to at least three of those students.”
“Two of them aren’t even at the school anymore, and I wouldn’t hurt any of them, anyway.”
Wren glared down at Orrin and he shut his mouth.
“You admitted that you are a member of the [Hero]’s party and tried to usurp justice in Odrana. Being associated with you could be a death sentence for most of the students here. On the other hand, you saved Rhys and his bodyguard. My brother feels indebted to you. You are doing a decent job keeping yourself alive and haven’t killed anyone that I know of…” She trailed off, giving him a significant look.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
“And don’t plan on it either. Take the collar off me and I’ll leave, never to be seen again.”
“If only it was that simple. My brother, in his infinite stupidity, is working for Lady Sanerris. I haven’t tied myself to any house but work more as a freelance agent for a few. Thankfully, none of them have given me a direct request to find a spy in the school. Now that I know Graem is linked to you, I have to move carefully. If I free you and let you run away, Graem is implicated. If I kill you, he might face Lady Sanerris’s wrath for failing her in some scheme you’re a part of. You’ll have to stay for now but if and when he tells you to leave, you should hope to never meet me again.”
“Professor Wren, I mean it when I say I just want to get home. I don’t want to be a part of this and never did. I don’t know what is going on half the time and I feel like I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop.”
Wren stopped pacing and walked behind Orrin. She grabbed the handcuffs she’d secured on him and took them off. “Not everyone was cut out for the political affairs of Odrana. Get as much of an education as you can in the next few weeks. I doubt we’ll see each other again after that. Now get to class before I change my mind.”
Orrin scrambled to his feet and began to exit the room.
“Oh, and Casimir,” Wren called out as he placed his hand on the doorknob. “Thank you for saving my brother.”
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Orrin decided that skipping Mana Signatures would be a bad idea. Showing up a few minutes after him, Wren gave no indication they’d fought that morning and taught the class as she normally did.
“Now, the best way to sense a mana signature and exclude it from the environmental mana around it is to let the System pull the spell from you like normal and focus. Once you begin to see your own mana being changed into a certain flavor of magic on a regular basis, you can begin to understand it better.”
Orrin thought about what he’d done in the dungeon. Using [Fire Sword] and [Gust], he’d manipulated the mana of both to create new spells. He remembered Wren’s presentation with increasing the output of her [Woodbolt] and frowned. That wasn’t what he’d done.
All around him, the other students were casting various spells using targets, buckets of dirt or water, and even a shaft of light coming through a window. His frown deepened as he thought about his own magic spells.
For the most part, Orrin was using [Gust] to keep up the facade of being a wind magic user at school. But if the mana signature of any spell could be read and understood, what about his increase stat spells?
Orrin used [Increase Will] at the lowest setting on himself, trying to drag the spell out as long as possible to have more time to study the mana flowing out of himself. The first two casts resulted in nothing. His frown deepened. Every other spell he’d cast, Orrin had been able to find some glimmer to focus on. After two more casts, he finally found it.
“What are you smiling about, Casimir? What spell are you casting?” Wren asked, standing in front of his desk.
“I… uhm… it’s a spell to increase my stats temporarily,’ Orrin spoke softly. Kieran was the closest person but he was engrossed in casting his own spell over and over. “It took me a few times to find the mana signature but—”
“Cast it again,” she demanded, not caring to keep her voice low. “Not on me,” she quickly added.
Orrin didn’t comment and pointedly ignored the flash of fear that crossed her face. He used the spell again.
“That… do it again.”
Orrin cast his spell three more times before Wren waved her hand. “That’s enough. Don’t waste all your mana.”
Orrin stopped. Wren’s head was tilted to the side as she studied him again. Orrin couldn’t tell what expression she was emoting. Part fear? Part excitement?
“You can see it too, right?”
“Yes, it took a few tries to find it but it doesn’t really match any of the magic types we went over.”
Wren nodded frantically. “Do you see any similarities in how it would fall into the core magic equation?”
Orrin turned his notebook, finding the page full of scribbles from the first day of class. “It doesn’t quite fit the equation for light magic but this part connects, I think. There is also a little bit of that tangle at the end over here in the earth magic equation but again, it doesn’t fit completely.”
“Stop looking at the various pieces,” Wren demanded. “Step back.”
It took him a minute to gather what she was saying but Orrin’s notes were pretty thorough on that first day. Ignoring the parts, he saw the swirls and angles of his buffing spell crawling all over the page.
“It looks a lot like the core magic equation itself.”
“Professor?” Noor, the old man who was using the light from the window to study his own light magic called out. “I believe I’m seeing it. I have a few questions regarding the calculi I want to apply to the spectrum.”
Orrin could see Wren wanted nothing more than to ignore Noor and stay asking him questions but she did her job. “Stay after class,” she demanded before walking over to the hunched elder.
Orrin tried mapping the differences between his [Increase Will] spell and the core equation as he’d copied it from the board. There were noticeable differences between the two but the way his spell’s mana signature spun and moved was closer to the original than any other type of magic Wren had taught them.
Orrin was about to cast [Increase Will] as well when the door to the room opened and a new face walked in.
Well, an old face that Orrin hadn’t seen in a week.
Finley Madvarr.
Finley paused at the door and waved at Orrin. Orrin raised his hand to wave back when he realized Finley was in reality waving to Kieran.
That’s right, Finley said he’d taken this class. He failed it with Kieran.
“Mr. Madvarr, take a seat. I didn’t realize you’d be back today.” Wren hurried to the front of the room to greet her newly returned student. “Grab a seat. We’re studying our own mana signatures today. If you are too tired from your… recent activities, you can rest instead.”
Orrin raised his eyebrows in surprise. He had never seen the bootlicker side of Professor Wren.
“Actually, I’m not here for class today, Professor,” Finley said with a smile. He swept his hair back in a practiced motion, tying it up behind his head. “I need to have a word with Casimir.”
“With Casimir? What? Why?” Wren sputtered, surprise and fear crossing her face.
“That’s classified,” Finley answered. Orrin noticed for the first time that Finley’s knives were all lined up against his armor. One of his hands rested casually across the hilt of one of the weapons. “Casimir Hale, please follow me.”